Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Soul of a Monster (NEWS)

Just when I thought I knew about, or had at least thought I'd seen all the major Columbia horror releases from the 40’s, along comes one from out of the musty great beyond to surprise me. TCM airs The Soul of a Monster (1944) in October on Friday the 19th, and with only 2 reviews on IMdb (one not so glowing and the other calling it “Lewton-esque”) I’m assuming not many other people know about it either, but it does sound intriguing. Anybody have anything to add?

10 comments:

Apparently when this played in theatres in 1944 it was on a double feature paired with another currently obscure and unavailable Columbia horror film called Cry of the Werewolf and starring Nina Foch (about a woman who changes into a werewolf.) I'm not sure I've seen this either...

Some lost films can be classics,like WHITE ZOMBIE or THE OLD DARK HOUSE(okay,the plot is stupid,the movie has boring parts,but it has Ernest Thesiger saying "have a potato",how awesome could that not be?)or so bad we see why they were lost,like the overrated HAND OF DEATH,or pieced together shitilly(LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT.)so who knows?,i'll certainly be watching.

Apparently San Fransisco horror host John Stanley saw CRY OF THE WEREWOLF(not to be confused with Oliver Reed's 1961 classic,CURSE,which i like even more than THE WOLF MAN.)and said he had it on video,but his plot sypnopsis was screwy sounding to say the least.

There's a couple people selling bootleg dvds on ebay of this movie and Cry of the Werewolf... I'll wait it out and see how Soul is on TCM first though. It does look like both films were available at one time on vhs but are of course now long out of print but can be found easy enough used.

>the overrated HAND OF DEATH

Yeah, not a good movie. I also agree with your Universal Wolf Man vs Hammer wolf man comparison even though I love the Universal classics. Actually I probably prefer the Hammer versions over the originals only because the monsters seem more like monsters. Karloff and Lugosi are awesome but I will take Chris Lee's vampires and mummies over theirs any day.

I was kind of the same way as a little kid but quickly converted to the Brit way of monster thinking as I grew older. I remember seeing the original Universal versions on TV alot, where I lived at the time I guess they didn't show the Hammer stuff as much. I remember seeing photos of Chris Lee as Dracula or The Mummy in mags like Famous Monsters and I'd wonder what the hell these were all about and why on Earth were they in color? But Hammer films have an atmosphere all their own, gorgeous color and art direction and yes, when you finally see a film like Dracula Prince of Darkness or Curse of Frankenstein in it's correct aspect ratio it makes all the difference in the world. People still to this day incorrectly call Hammer Horror "b-films" too, which drives me totally up the wall as they are most definitely anything but.

Finally,someone understands me!,i hate to say it but i really prefer Lee as to Lugosi,Bela wasn't trying to be a vampire or horror legend,he wanted to be Rudolf Valentino,Lee didn't,and captured the books atmosphere by making the count more of an animal.I also prefer the hammer version of THE MUMMY,however i do consider the Universal Frankenstein films equals,and unlike most fans,i don't consider BRIDE to be overrated and SON the gem,i think SON is unintentionally silly while BRIDE is a film aware of it's own silliness,and is faithful in spirit to the novel,but as for Hammer's Frankenstein alongside Universals,meh,i love em'all,even EVIL OF and GHOST OF.

I love the vampire master Kurt Barlow from the original Salem's Lot ('79) movie directed by Tobe Hooper. He was more monster than any of them... like Nosferatu crossed with an evil blood thirsty sewer rat. Reggie Nalder was snarlingly brilliant in that role.

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